Up until a week ago it was a grey area for me until a read a fabulous article on another blog. It got me thinking. The article stated, and rather clearly that having a reader like, even for bonus entries is against Facebook Promotional Guidelines. The blogger even had a Facebook account manager confirm this.

Just to verify, I hunted, and I do mean hunted down the email of two account executives at Facebook and one was kind enough to reply to my email.

When I run a giveaway for a company, large or small, I was asking my Readers to ‘like’ my FB page and the sponsor page for a BONUS entry.

After reading and re-reading the Facebook Promotions Guidelines over and over and over again. I don’t know if I am in violation. I stopped using FB liking as a bonus entry a few days ago, and some of my sponsors are not happy and are not in agreement with my decision.

This is the section that I am referring to:

4. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.

Can I have my Readers like a Facebook Page for bonus entry into a giveaway?

Here is the reply I received from Tamara Rosenbaum, Account Executive at Facebook. The answer is crystal clear folks!

Tamara Rosenbaum has sent you a message.Date: 10/10/2011Subject: RE: Facebook Promotions Guidelines

Hi Leslie-

This is against our guidelines. Per the clause below, you cannot use any native tool of facebook as a method of entry. Therefore, you cannot have users like the page to get bonus entries, there is no way for you to track that nor pull a full list of your facebook fans anyways.

Thanks Tamara

Leslie Loves Veggies will not be using ‘liking’ on Facebook as a means of entry into my giveaways until further notice. Please feel free to like my Leslie Loves Veggies FB Fan Page. I do love my fans!

THANK YOU!!! I’ve been trying to nail down a firm issue on this very issue, but haven’t heard back from anyone at Facebook. Is it alright with you if I quote this email, with a link to your post, when I talk about Facebook’s guidelines?

I’d really like to hear a definitive answer from their legal team! If “liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app” we’re against their guidelines, why would they mention those exceptions?

I was just pondering. I’m always critical because I’ve spent years on the other end training and supervising customer service reps for a major corporation. You can ask 10 different (trained) people and get 10 different responses.

I would think you could do a “scavenger hunt” of sorts and say something like:

“read the note visible only to members who’ve liked the blog on facebook and find the word in red and post below.”

It works around it in that it allows you to get the likes but, you aren’t requiring them to like the blog just access something on the fb page which would require that they like the page. It’s still within the guidelines but outside.

I agree. The original wording reads, to me, that liking and checking into places is the exception, so I’m not sure the answer received here is accurate. And yes, I also agree…you can ask 10 different well trained people the same question and get 10 different answers. This happens to me all the time.

Leslie, I think that there was still some confusion on the part of the FB rep when she answered your question.

The Fb guidelines states, anything “OTHER than liking a Page” is against guidelines. So it says that they CAN like a page. But what you can’t do, and she makes it clear that this is what she is referring to, is say anyone who “likes” your page is automatically entered to win. She mentions that “there is no way for you to track that nor pull a full list of your facebook fans anyways.” BUT – you CAN have them like a page, and THEN enter on a rafflecopter, since that IS a way to track it. You can also use a third party app – there are tons you can find in the fb apps – to run a giveaway, and have people Like your page. Facebook themselves have even developed app’s that you can use to have people “like” your page and then enter.

It has been confirmed by Trace Przybylowicz, an account manager at Facebook that you cannot ask people to Like your page, comment on your Wall, write a status update, or check-in to a Place as an entry to your promotion. These can’t be primary or additional entries. Please read that post… Rafflecopter is specifically mentioned.

This is an interesting article too. I do think that some things are getting confused, by both bloggers and by the Facebook reps answering the questions. The main point is that Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines apply when you have a giveaway on Facebook, not on your own site.

Again, I disagree. You’re right when you say that you CANNOT ask people to like your page, comment, etc and have THAT be their entry. As the fb rep said in her response to you, that wouldn’t work because you have no way to just pull a list of all of your fans to determine a winner. And if you have them like a picture or comment, and call that action their entry, then you are using “Facebooks functionality” as a way of entering. BUT- if you ask them to enter after they become a fan, then you are not breaking the rules.

Think about it – if the third party apps are allowed to say, “Like this page and then fill out an entry form”, and that IS allowed, why would saying “Like my page then fill out this rafflecopter entry form” be any different?

I really can’t see any thing at all that says I can’t ask them to like a page and then fill out a form, since rafflecopter IS a third party app.

You are correct. This is where people are getting confused. You can CONDITION an entry on liking or checking in, you CANNOT give the entry automatically. What she is saying is being misunderstood. You can condition the entry on liking the page, but to GET the entry, they need to enter a form, make a comment on your blog etc.

I have to respectfully say I believe she is misinterpreting the rule herself. First off, I can view a complete list of all of my Facebook fans simply by clicking “like this” under the number of “likes” I have. It’s a simple confirmation.

Further, if you actually read the Facebook guideline is says, “You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality OTHER THAN liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app.”

This indicates to me that you can, in fact, ask people to LIKE a page, but you CANNOT require them to comment on a page or like a specific wall post.

I think you spoke with an account executive (aka salesperson) who doesn’t actually understand the terminology herself.

I read that same article about it being against FB policy to link a “like my page” with a giveaway. I for one agree with it. It’s like asking someone to “like” their Etsy Store for a bonus entry. It’s just wrong. You want a person to “like” you on FB for real, not just for a prize, because we’ll all just end up hiding your feed or delete you after the contest/giveaway ends. So either way, I don’t think asking someone to “like” your page for a giveaway pays off at all. I “like” several blogs and products because I want to see their feed. Just my opinion as someone who loves crafts’ blogs (and lots of other comments like mine on the blogs discussing this). PS I’ll only enter giveaways that ask me to leave a comment on their blog. I hate the rafflecopter entry forms.

Thanks for your comment and I’m sorry to hear that you don’t like (hate) the Rafflecopter form. It took me a long time to start using it but I really do like it. It is easier to use and much faster to enter. That being said.. I love to read the comments that are left on my blog. Many of my readers will still leave a comment, which I love!!
xoxo

Hi Leslie,
Thanks for the response! I follow you on bloglovin and that’s how I knew about this topic:) I can see how lots of people would prefer using the rafflecopter forms – but thinking about the issue I think I dislike them because they prompt me to give out more information than I want to (my choice totally, I know). That being said, I’m glad somebody has gotten to the bottom of this whole “liking” facebook issue, because my husband has a business and was thinking about doing something like a discount to get people to follow him on FB (despite my feelings about it) and I will relay what you have found out to him, so thank you.

Rafflecopter is really a lot more discreet 🙂 Spammers can’t see your comments and unscrupulous business owners can’t steal your email address! 🙂 So I love that! By all means use FB for your business but use a third party app. That would be fine!!
xoxox
Leslie

I agree with Lindsay – Fb has even developed their own app’s you can use, where you have to “like” a page and then enter. What the fb rep says in her response is that you can’t JUST have them like a page and then find a random winner, since you don’t have a way to pull a list of all of your fans. It clearly states “OTHER than liking a Page”. Which clearly states that they CAN like a page for entry – but then have to submit that entry to a third party app, blog, or rafflecopter, etc.

Maybe when you speak to that rep again you can ask a more concise question of – can someone like a page as a PART of an entry process on an ap… so they still have to ENTER on an application?”

That’s where I have to disagree with the post here… Facebook approves app’s that make it MANDATORY to “like” a page before being able to enter a giveaway. If Facebook develops and approves apps that require “liking” a page for entry, how can anyone think that they don’t allow it? They make their own apps that way.

I agree with earlier comments – I believe that the Facebook rep wasn’t understanding the question the same way it was being asked. She said you CANNOT have “liking” a page BE the entry – that’s using Facebooks functionality as a form of entry. You CAN however have “liking” a page be required as part of an entry form.

The native tool, both the guidelines and Tamera are referring to, from FB is the “act” of liking a status, liking a photo, commenting on a status. Because then you would have to pull the fans info from FB- which is forbidden. You can request a “Like” of you page, but that can’t be the only step for an entry. They have to submit info through a 3rd party app (ie…Rafflecopter) and be required to do other entries- it cannot be the only method of entry.

I think that many people, including you, mistake the “Like” tool on a status/pic/etc… to the Like of becoming a fan. For more details- you can check out my very detailed write up here-

That article has been wrong and has been noted many places as incorrect.

I mean go ahead and lose the extra entries for yourself. But don’t preach other incorrect info when there are several articles out there directing that Becoming a Fan is ok, it just cannot be the only method of entry and cannot be automatic.

Thanks for your comment. Can you please direct me to where that article has been noted as incorrect. I feel my info is correct and have a Facebook executive to back up my information otherwise I would not post this. But I welcome your information as this could clear this up for us all. So please send them for review. Many Many thanks!

I read your post and it is great… please get a facebook representative to endorse it. Then we can all rest easier having a stamp of approval from someone at FB saying that liking a sponsor page is acceptable as a bonus entry into a blog giveaway.
Thanks so much Yolanda

This is what that article says – “For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.” Which is NOT what bloggers are doing. We’ve all said that “liking” a page cannot be the entry. Using rafflecopter is NOT having them automatically enter by liking your page.

The article also states that you CAN run an app on an iframe, and as long as you state that it’s not sponsored by fb, you CAN run your giveaway on fb with it – which is how you use a Rafflecopter on fb.

AND, this article states: Rule #4 is stating that this Like-gating of your promotional content is completely acceptable as long as you don’t make the Like an entry. – Which means, yes you CAN require them to “like” the page before being able to enter. But the ACT OF liking the page cannot be the entry.

Dearest Leslie,
I am soooooooooooooooo happy that you have brought this to light.
Almost a year ago, I was informed that you could not force someone to like them on facebook as a mandatory entry.
So if there was a contest that I really wanted to enter, I’d write the blogger to ask if the sponsor would consider a different entry like being an email subscriber. 9 times out of 10 the sponsor was happy to comply.
I think facebook is correct in their guidelines…no one should have to like them for any reason.
I hope that all honest and integral bloggers will change their blogs to reflect the guidelines.
Stand by you guns girl…I think your post is thoughtful and well written.
As far as bloggers go…you are one of the BEST!!!

Oh man what a mess! Leslie I appreciate your checking on this. You work so hard for us readers!

But what I’m not clear is, how can Facebook decide how you run a blog giveaway? Hello, freedom of speech? You aren’t running giveaways thru Facebook, you are merely building your fan base from your own blog. How can they possibly regulate you?

I could see if you were having blog giveaways where readers enter ON Facebook. And you pull a winner ON Facebook, they could have a say in it. That’s not the case. I think, what it might be, is that Facebook doesn’t want to be in the middle of giveaways so that they aren’t liable for anything if the giveaway goes awry.

‘Liking’ your fan page should have nothing to do with the legal team at Facebook.

Thats pretty much why Leslie’s argument is incorrect. They can’t. It’s a third party. What Facebook DOESN’T want is you using them as a way to violate privacy. So yea, Like fan pages, but when you click that Like- that can’t be your method of entry. That is where your blog or Rafflecopter come in, they take the entry- they take the info, NOT Facebook.

I think that a blogger or a sponsor asking you to “like” them on facebook is very wrong to begin with as a mandatory entry.
I do not enter giveaways that ask for this and I know many of my friends agree.

I DISLIKE a sponsor more if they try to make this requirement…I do not like to be told who to like!!!

I think the guidelines tell you not to do this and that the bloggers that are arguing are interpreting them to their benefit to keep theirs and their sponsors stats up and I think this is wrong…sorry that is just the honest way I feel.

I hope that now that this has come to light, the real and true answer will come out!

Maybe the difference is the wording..
maybe you can ask them to like for a bonus entry,
BUT not as a MANDATORY ENTRY…just a thought…

I have absolutely NOTHING to gain by excluding “liking” facebook as a means of entry into my giveaways for those of you that are skeptics. My blog is drama free 🙂 Take the information if you would like it. My goal was not to incite an argument. It was merely to pass on information.

If I find out any further information I will be sure to pass it along.

Liking the page is allowed.
“You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app”
vlbsweeps at gmail dot com

Jeez…it seems to me that the wording of FB guidelines is pretty clear (offering a bonus entry for liking does NOT violate their rules), but FB reps don’t seem to understand either their own guidelines or how blog giveaways work. Maybe they don’t realize that you have to go back to the blog and COMMENT to tell the administrator you like a page? There’s your entry, not the liking itself. Crazy, though, how convoluted this is.

The problem is, that a blogger can have their facebook deleted for violating FB Terms of Service. And if the Guidelines are not clear then I have to err on the side of caution. I have been burned by Stumbleupon and Google already. I do NOT want to have my Facebook Fan page deleted. I’m a pretty savvy woman. I believed that liking a fan page or a business page was perfectly within the Facebook Guidelines until recently Heather. Now, I am not so sure.

I’ve read, re-read those guidelines over and over, and yes it seems acceptable to like a page for an entry. However, when you question Facebook, they tell you that NO, it is NOT acceptable for mandatory or bonus entries into a blog giveaway. I’ve contacted the FB legal team for clarification and hope to get a response from them. Thanks for your comment.

I totally get that. My fur is up over the fact that FB reps don’t seem to know (maybe) and that there is no clear, absolute, definitive answer to this, and that it IS possible to have your page deleted because somebody ELSE didn’t do their job properly (i.e., writing clearer guidelines or making sure that all representatives of the company understand how to interpret those guidelines). I’ve said this before and it holds true: yours is THE blog I trust and turn to first. You keep your giveaways completely transparent, you make sure the rules are crystal clear and legal for everybody concerned, and I consider you the hardest-working blogger out there, and an example to all others. So I actually understand and agree that it’s probably in your best interest to err on the side of caution. And the bottom line is that it’s YOUR blog! You can do what you want with it! 🙂 I’m not criticizing your decision at all, but I am frustrated with FB. I am looking forward to seeing what they say about the kerfuffle!

Thank you so much for your kind comment. I had my google page rank 4 removed this summer and my blog then a google ZERO! Why? Unnatural links! What is an unnatural link? To this day I am unsure. However I had so many (real) links into my blog that Google believed I had schemed to buy those links. I have since changed some of the ways I do my entries on my giveaways. I have since had my ranking at least restored to a 2 and rather quickly I might add, thanks to the help of Cathy Tibbles at http://desperatelyseekingwp.com/

It took many sleepless nights, emails and hard work. But I was diligent and so was Cathy! The powers that be WILL make an example out of the little guy, trust me!
I am very frustrated with Facebook. They are purposely making the guidelines confusing and this like-gating etc.. makes it all the more confusing.

I welcome everyone’s comments and they are much appreciated. You are always welcome to speak your mind. 🙂 And I was not offended at all by your comments Heather.

Although I am not a lawyer, I have worked for a law-making body for the past 16 years. You could get 20 lawyers in a room and seriously come out with 20 different answers as you can see here.

The rules in question seem to be:
3.You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
(notice it says cannot automatically register)

4.You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
(notice it says you cannot condition registration…..OTHER THAN LIKING A PAGE, CHECKING IN TO A PLACE, OR CONNECTING TO YOUR APP.)

Here’s my 2 cents as a layman who has worked years with Legalease…
1. You cannot use Facebook actions as an ACTUAL ENTRY method. You cannot post a status that says all comments will be entered to win. You cannot say on FB like my page and that enters you into a contest.

2. You CAN condition an entry on Liking pages, Checking in to Places, and Conneting to your App, but NO OTHER CONDITIONS. This means that you can say, go and like my page and then you can click this rafflecopter button to enter the contest.

If you notice on Rafflecopter, you LIKE the page, and THEN you click another button to actually enter the contest. The LIKE is not the entry, it is just a condition of entering. The same as the condition of you must be 21 to enter.

I feel completely comfortable participating in giveaways that use these conditions. Even if 50% of the people that like my page HIDE me, I still have a opportunity to reach the other 50%. It is definitely a proven way to grow your blog or business. If it weren’t, the Fortune 500 companies wouldn’t be giving away Millions of Dollars in coupons and prizes using this method. They have whole legal departments and they don’t seem to be worrying about it. I don’t think our little blogs should put this much effort into worrying about it.

I have a BlogTalkRadio show. Most weeks we offer a book giveaway – I interview a lot of authors. I tell everyone they can use our giveaway email address or tell me on our FB page they want to be entered into the giveaway. According to this definition, I can’ use FB for my giveaways anymore because they don’t want people VOLUNTARILY leaving a comment. This really disturbs me. Most of the listeners prefer to leave their comment in our FB community.

This is the clearest answer I’ve seen on this. I had stopped having this as an entry a while ago b/c I’d heard this… but it still didn’t seem so clear and plenty were saying it was okay as long as it was optional.

Yuck. I did this with my last giveaway and had no idea it was against facebook terms. Everyone does it. Ugh. I think they should rethink that guideline, personally. It’s good business to allow people to do this. I guess I’ll just stick with tweets for bonus entries from now on. I don’t know. I will have to go back to the drawing board on this one. Thanks for the heads up.

I agree that if there’s no certain way to know if someone is indeed liking your page or not, then it shouldn’t be possible to use that as a bonus entry (even if you choose to take their word for it)…
Even if you are hosting the giveaway outside facebook, I think that you’d still fall under the guidelines because you are using it to “communicate”, right? When they mention apps, I don’t think that they are talking about rafflecopter, they are talking about contest apps that are hosted on a Page’s dedicated tab…

Thank you so much for posting about this. I have been reading up on doing giveaways on my blog and I was reading so many mixed messages regarding FB likes.
I love entering contests as well, and I have been asked twice just this week to like a company on Facebook to enter. These aren’t bloggers, but big companies like Chase Freedom asking this. Hmm, it will be interesting to watch this play out.
Thanks again Leslie!

So what should I do, as someone who enters giveaways that offer the Facebook liking thing as an extra entry? I mean, it’d be silly of me to NOT grab that extra entry when it’s so easy… I’m very conflicted here.

That’s called Like gating Tracy and I believe that is ok because you have to have a third party app set up for that. and that is a PAID app. oy vey! So complicated.

xoxo
Leslie

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Effective immediately, please don’t leave 1, 2 or 3 word comments on my blog. Comments such as “I’d love to win this prize” or even “Thank you for the giveaway” will unfortunately be deleted. Please leave comments containing 2 – 4 sentences that the folks at Google can’t possibly mistake for spam. Of course questions are always welcome. This policy is based on a post I wrote titled Giveaway Bloggers – Google Thinks Your Reader’s Comments Are Spam!